Mihoshi's Day Out
by BobR
Summary: In which Mihoshi has an accident and her boyfriend makes a startling discovery.


Disclaimer

Tenchi and all associated characters are the property of AIC and Pioneer LDC.  I don't own any rights to them.  Any other characters are property of their respective copyright holders, not me.

*****

Mihoshi's Day Out

*****

It was another beautiful late spring day in Okayama Prefecture; the birds were singing, the sun was shining and the two Juraian Guardians were… well, guarding.  The sound of an approaching aircraft could be heard over all of the other gentle sounds.

Ayeka looked up from her cleaning as a small, two-passenger helicopter landed in the yard.  As the motor wound down a young, sandy haired man of medium height clambered out of the pilot's seat.

"Mihoshi!  You're date's here," the princess called upstairs to the blonde.

"Tell him to wait a minute.  I'm almost ready," came the faint reply.

The First Princess of Jurai stepped outside to greet their guest as he walked up to the door.  "Good morning Crash, how nice to see you again.  Mihoshi says that she'll be right down.  Would you like to wait in the house?  I'm sure Sasami can get you something to drink while you're waiting."

The man had blue eyes the same shade as Mihoshi's.  He looked at the princess with a twinkle in them.  "Hi Ayeka.  No thanks, it's so nice today I think I'll wait out here."

"Whatever you wish.  Where are you two going today?  I see you brought one of your aircraft with you."

Crash looked proudly back at the helicopter sitting quietly on the grass, "I promised Mihoshi I'd show her the mountains north of here.  They're really beautiful from the air this time of year; of course the fall is even better.  Maybe I can take you all for a ride in the fall; would you like that?"

Ayeka smiled pleasantly, "Yes, that would be nice.  I think we'd all enjoy that."

"Ok, it's a date then."  His eyes focused on something over Ayeka's shoulder.

"Ahem.  Ayeka, are you making dates with my boyfriend?  What will Tenchi say?" Mihoshi asked jokingly as she stepped up next to the princess.

The blonde GP giggled as Ayeka's face turned red. "Oh, hello Mihoshi.  I didn't hear you come downstairs," the princess said with embarrassment.

"Wow, you look nice today.  Are you ready to go?" Crash complimented his girlfriend.

"Yep," Mihoshi said, "as soon as I get our picnic lunch from Sasami; she promised to make us a good one you know."

Crash's eyes lit up.  "Great, you know how much I enjoy her meals.  If I don't watch out I'll get too heavy to fly."

"Here Mihoshi.  I heard Crash's helicopter land and I brought it out to you," said a small voice from the doorway.  Sasami handed a basket to the blonde.

"Oh, gee thanks Sasami.  Well be back in plenty of time for dinner, won't we?" she said, turning to Crash.

"Yep.  I wouldn't miss one of Sasami's meals for anything."  Crash took Mihoshi by the hand and led her to the waiting aircraft.  Just before they reached it he seemed to trip over something and sprawled face down on the grass, dragging Mihoshi down with him to land on her behind.  Regaining his feet, he helped his date up and opened the door for her, while rubbing a sore spot on his head.  The couple both waved to the princesses as the engine began to spool up and the blades started to turn.

The little princess waved back.  "I wish we could tell him about us.  He seems so nice," she said to her sister.

"Yes," Ayeka agreed. "And Mihoshi cares for him deeply.  They make quite a couple, don't they?"

"They sure do."

The two watched as the helicopter lifted off and disappeared into the distance.

*****

Crash skillfully piloted the aircraft through the mountains as Mihoshi looked out and made exuberant comments on the scenery.  They were both having a grand time when Mihoshi's stomach started to rumble.  She squeaked an apology to which Crash laughed and suggested they land somewhere and eat Sasami's picnic lunch.  Mihoshi readily agreed.

They spotted a small clearing and landed the helicopter gently in it.  Spreading out the food in the shade of the aircraft, the two chatted about what they'd done and seen so far today; and made plans to go shopping the next day.  After lunch Crash set the alarm on his watch and they cuddled up together for a short nap.  Neither one had noticed that they were far outside the area that Crash had meant to fly around in.

When the alarm went off both of them sat up suddenly, banging their heads together painfully.  Laughing, they sat rubbing the sore spots for a bit, then Crash leaned over and gave Mihoshi a kiss.

"It's getting late, we'd better start back if we're going to get there in time for dinner," he said to his date.

"I know.  But this has been so much fun.  You _are_ going to spend the night, aren't you?   That way we can get an early start tomorrow."

He chuckled.  "Yes, if it's all right with the others," he said as he helped her back into the aircraft.

*****

They were flying over a small mountain lake when it all went wrong.  A hawk was catching a late afternoon thermal off the water when suddenly the aircraft was in front of it.  With no more than a quiet squawk, the bird was sucked into the turbine intake.  It seemed that every warning light and buzzer in the cockpit went off at once.  He immediately shut down the engine before it could do any further damage and the helicopter began to autorotate down to the lake surface.  But as they didn't have much altitude they didn't have time to slow down before they hit the water.  

On impact the tail boom separated and sank at once and the front of the aircraft was pushed in several inches, forcing the controls against Crash's legs.  His head hit the windshield sending brightly colored stars flying past his eyes.  The sound of water entering the cabin could be heard.

"Mihoshi, are you ok?" Crash called weakly.

"Yes," she replied, slightly dazed.  "But you sound hurt."

"I think I broke a couple of ribs and my leg doesn't feel right either.  It's caught under the control panel.  We need to get out before we sink."

"I'm trying, but the door's stuck," she cried.

He could hear her rattling the door.  "The airframe's buckled.  Keep trying."

Mihoshi took her fist and started banging on the window.  A couple of solid blows and the plastic shattered.  Water began to pour in in earnest.  She reached over and undid Crash's harness.  Grabbing the control panel, she used her strength and some leverage to move it just enough that she could get his leg free.  The water level was up to her chest.  Gathering the now unconscious pilot in her arms she swam out the opening she'd made.  As she cleared the window, a fragment of plastic caught her leg, causing a large, painful gash.  She didn't have time to worry about it right now and tucking Crash under her arm she began to make for shore.

Reaching a low spot along the shoreline, Mihoshi painfully climbed out of the lake and propped Crash up against the trunk of a tree.  She knew that he was in a bad way and if they weren't found soon he might not make it.  She wanted to cry, but it wouldn't help the situation so she tried to remember her GP survival training.  The first thing to do was tend to their injuries.

A quick examination of Crash showed that he did have a few broken ribs, one of which may have damaged a lung; there wasn't any blood anywhere so she wasn't sure.  His leg was broken, but it was a clean break; there was a bruise forming where he'd been trapped by the controls and another where he'd hit his head on the windshield.  She didn't think he had a concussion though, but once again she couldn't be sure.  He was still out so she began to examine herself.  The gash on the leg, bad but it would heal.  She'd lost some blood, but not too much.  Her hand where she'd broken the window had some minor cuts and it was starting to hurt when she moved it.  Maybe a broken bone or two, that plastic had been tough.  She sat down near Crash and sighed.  It was going to be a long night.

A groan brought her out of her contemplation.

Mihoshi looked over at Crash and saw that his eyes were closed, either sleeping or still passed out.  She reached into her pocket and pulled out the white fluff that became her GP control cube as she squeezed it.  A few turns and a GP medical kit appeared above her head.  Dropping the cube, she grabbed the kit with her good hand before it hit the ground.  Opening it up she prepared an injector of painkiller for herself and another, stronger dose for Crash.

"What's that Mihoshi?"

Startled, she looked over at her boyfriend, whose pain filled eyes were now open and watching her.

"Nothing much.  Just a little something to relax you until help comes."

"It's gonna be a while," he said weakly.  "We're in the middle of nowhere here and well off our flight plan I think."

"Someone'll find us, don't worry."  She crawled over to him and slapped the injector against his thigh.

He grimaced at the pressure, then the medicine began to work and the pain faded.  "It'll be getting dark soon, we need to get a fire started."

"Why do we need a fire?  It's warm enough right now."

"Up in the mountains like this it gets pretty cold when the sun goes down, and we're still wet from the lake," he explained.  "Besides, it'll help others find us and give us some light to work by."  His shoulders slumped in despair.  "But we don't have anything to start one with, so I guess we get cold tonight."

Mihoshi thought for a moment.  "You just rest here, I'll see what I can do."

"But you're injured too…"

"Just my hand a little.  I can still use it some."  She flexed her fingers and tried not to wince in pain.  She didn't say anything about the gash on her leg; the less he had to worry about, the better.  Besides, she healed much faster than an Earth human; it had already stopped bleeding.  She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the forehead.  "I'll be back in a little while."  She unsteadily got to her feet and limped off toward the forest.

"Mihoshi, I lo…" Crash began as the drug finally took effect and he lost consciousness.

She looked back at him lying against the bole of the tree.  "I love you too."  She turned away and disappeared into the woods.

*****

It was early evening and dinner was just about over.  Sasami was upset because Mihoshi and Crash hadn't made it back in time.  Washu told her not to worry as they probably stopped for a nap somewhere, but the later it got, the more worried Sasami became.  

Another hour passed and it was starting to get dark.  Washu was getting worried now too, Mihoshi might be a ditz, but she was always reliable.  If Mihoshi said she was going to do something or be somewhere she meant it.  The scientist pulled Ryoko and Ayeka aside and talked quietly with them for a few moments.  After a while they both nodded, then with a glance at the teary eyed Sasami they went outside.  The sound of two cabbits changing form was heard from over the lake.  Washu walked over and put her arm around the little princess.

"Any word from Mihoshi yet Washu?" asked a very worried Sasami.

"No, but I've sent Ryoko and Ayeka out looking.  Don't worry little one, we'll find her and I'm sure she'll be ok.  Why don't you make them something nice to eat for when they get here?"  Washu gave Sasami another squeeze then went into her lab to monitor the search.

*****

Unbeknownst to Mihoshi, when she dropped the cube it activated the cube's locator beacon.  Normally useless on a world without the equipment to find it, this time Mihoshi's luck was working full force, as there _was_ someone on Earth who could detect it.

Washu was dozing at her console, waiting on word from either her daughter or daughter-in-law when an insistent buzzing intruded on her senses.  Batting her hand in front of her face to shoo away the annoying insect, it took her a moment to realize that in her lab there were no loose insects; the automated housekeepers wouldn't allow it.  The buzzing was coming from her console.  She quickly sat up and scanned the instruments.  What she saw made her smile in relief.  _I was wondering when she'd think of that, _ she thought.  She used her terminal to plot the beacon's location and matched it against the current positions of Ryo-ohki and Ay-ohki.  Ayeka was closer, but it would still take her a while to get there if she didn't want to draw the attention of any Earth authorities.  The little scientist keyed open a comm channel.

*****

Mihoshi limped out of the forest with an armful of dry wood, mostly sticks but with a few larger pieces as well.  It was her fourth trip and she thought she had enough to keep a small fire going through the night.  Clearing a small area, she stacked the wood like she'd been taught in survival school.  Now to find a way to start it.  She reached into her pocket for her cube, then remembered that she'd dropped it when the medical kit materialized.  She hunted around on the ground for it in the deepening twilight until she felt it under her hand.  Picking it up, she gave it a few deft twists and her blaster appeared in her hand.  She turned the cube back into fluff and tucked it away.  Setting the weapon for it's lowest intensity, she fired into the small pile of wood, catching it alight.  Adding a few of the bigger pieces, she soon had a merry little fire blazing.  She sat down next to Crash and put his head in her lap.  Too bad she'd never been able to make her cube produce food, or even coffee.

Washu banged her fist on the console as the locator beacon suddenly shut off.  It wasn't that she didn't know where the beacon was as much as what the sudden cutting off of the transmission might mean.  And Ayeka was still ten minutes away.  Washu willed her to hurry.

*****

Ay-ohki cleared the mountaintop with only feet to spare and dipped down into the valley Washu had said the beacon was transmitting from.  His sensors detected a small fire burning in a clearing by a lake, but no signs of any wreckage from a downed aircraft.  Slowing to a stop over the fire, he used his passive array to scan for life.

_Ayeka, we've found her.  She appears to be uninjured, but the man with her is badly hurt, _ the cabbit said to his companion.

"All right dear, light the area up and transport me down so I can check them out.  Oh, and tell the others where we are."

A bright light shining on his face slowly brought Crash out of his drug induced sleep.  His eyes blurrily focused on a shape hovering several hundred meters overhead.  A large, crystalline shape with four long spikes sticking straight out from the central body.  The light seemed to be coming from it.  He painfully shook Mihoshi awake.

"Mihoshi.  Mihoshi, those drugs you gave me are making me see things.  I see a big UFO hovering over us."

"Wha…?  Oh, that's not a UFO, that's Ayeka's ship," Mihoshi said blearily.  "Hey, if Ay-ohki's here then Ayeka must be too!  We're saved!  I told you someone would find us."

A brighter light shot down from the craft and Ayeka materialized next to them.  She quickly knelt to examine Mihoshi's boyfriend.

"Oh Ayeka," said the blonde GP with tears in her eyes, "I'm so glad you're here.  We sucked a bird into the engine and the helicopter crashed in the lake and…  Crash is hurt bad, isn't he?"

Ayeka smiled at her, "Not so bad that Washu can't fix him up I think."

The three dissolved upward in another beam of light.

"All right Ay-ohki," the princess called out as she sat down in the command chair, "let's go home.  And don't spare the carrots."

"Rrrooowwwwrrrrrr!"  The cabbit-ship shot off on a ballistic trajectory back to the Masaki house.

*****

Crash slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he noticed was the lack of pain.  The second was Mihoshi's beautiful face peering anxiously down at him.  The third thing was that they were no longer in the wilderness.

He reached out to grab the blonde's hand.  "Mihoshi, I had the strangest dream."

"It wasn't a dream.  You're safe now, in Washu's lab.  She says she'll have you up and around in about two days.  Isn't it great?  Normally Washu won't let me in here because I break too many things, but she said it's ok for me to be here with you because you'd need a familiar face when you woke up."

"Whoa!  Slow down.  What do you mean 'Washu's Lab'?  That little redheaded kid has a lab?  How did this happen?  Where are we?"

"All good questions.  I'll try to answer them," came a sultry voice from the far side of the room.

Crash looked past Mihoshi to see a tall, red haired woman standing in the doorway.  "Here Mihoshi, have a seat," she said.  A floating cushion appeared behind the blonde.

"Oh.  Gee, thanks Washu.  My leg's still a bit sore."

"Washu?  But Washu's a twelve-year-old…"

"Like this?"  Washu changed into her child form.

Crash's eyes about popped out of his head.  "What are you?"

The scientist laughed.  "Do you want the long or short explanation?"

"Uh, short for now please."

"I'm an alien.  I'm also Ryoko's mother," she said, changing back into an adult.

"Ryoko?  Ryoko's an alien too?" His eyes got big and round.

"Yep," said Mihoshi.  "And so's Ayeka and Sasami and Yosho.  Tenchi's part alien too; Noboyuki's just weird.  Hey!  Come to think of it, I'm an alien too, aren't I Washu?"

"Er, yes, I suppose you are, dingbat."

"You're not human?"  Crash's eyes were huge now.

"Well, I didn't say that.  I suppose not in the same sense that you are though," Mihoshi giggled.  "But I'm not that much different from you.  I mean, all the parts fit right, don't they?"

"They should," remarked Washu.  "You guys are even biologically compatible.  You can have kids the normal way if you want.  Uh, Mihoshi, that reminds me, you _are_ up-to-date on all your shots, aren't you?"

"Oh yeah.  No worries there, not for a while anyway."  She giggled again.

Crash shook his head in wonder.  "Wow.  I've been dating an alien.  You're not a space princess or something, are you?"

_Space case is more like it, _ passed through Washu's mind.

"No silly," the blonde replied, tapping his head lightly with her fist.  "Ayeka's the princess and so's Sasami.  I'm just a Police Lieutenant," 

Washu chuckled mentally at this.  _Little does she know… _

"Police Lieutenant?  What are Ryoko and Washu then?" Crash asked.

"Well, Ryoko was a space pirate, but since she married Tenchi, I guess she's a princess now too.  And Washu's kinda a goddess."

"And the Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe, don't forget," Washu interjected.

"Oh yeah, that too," said Mihoshi.  "And then there's Tsunami and Tokimi, they're goddesses too."

"Don't even think about running to the tabloids Lover Boy," Washu said, waggling a finger in her patient's face with a grin, "I've got friends in low places."

"They wouldn't believe me anyway," Crash replied, holding his head.  He looked up at the red head suddenly.  "Say, do you have anything for a headache too?" he asked with a smile.  

Washu held out her hand and Crash took it.  "Welcome to the family," she said with a dual meaning only she understood, giving Mihoshi a sidelong look.  All three of them started laughing.

*****

The End

*****

Author's Notes

Nope, nothing down here.  Or in my head either, that's the problem.  Literally.  I thought I had my next story all mapped out, but some parts just aren't coming together right.  I'll keep working on it though.  Anyway, I had the idea for this one while I was writing the Interlude chapter of The Great Cabbit Search.  What do you think?   

For those of you that haven't read my other fics, Tenchi is married to both Ayeka and Ryoko; Washu has been revealed as the third Goddess; Ayeka acquired her own cabbit through strange circumstances on the honeymoon and…  Oh hell, just read the other fics and maybe it'll all make sense.

And what are you reading down here for anyway?  The fic ended several lines ago…


End file.
